Sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch certain movies.
I'm not entirely sure I was in the right frame of mind to watch The Science of Sleep.
The film is French, I believe, although the main character, Stephane, was actually raised mostly in Mexico. This means that although he speaks some French, mostly he speaks in English. The film therefore has a fairly random mix of English and French with subtitles.
But this is the least of the randomness. Stephane it seems has quite an active dream life. I personally am one of those people who almost never remembers their dreams, but Stephane is almost the opposite - he seems to live partly in his dreams and sometimes has trouble telling them apart from real life.
Now this is a tricky thing to convey on film - especially for a lower budget film like this. A modern Hollywood film might achieve the effect with expensive CGI, but here they tend to use more old school stuff, so we get lots of stop motion and rear-projection and stuff like that.
Overall it actually works quite well. There are occasions when you can't quite tell whether it's meant to be the dream world or the real world, but those are clearly deliberate. When it wants you to know it's dream, it's fairly clear, and when it wants to blur the lines, that works well too.
What doesn't quite work so well is the plot.
The basic plot is a romance at heart, with Stephane chasing his neighbour, Stephanie (yeah, I know). However, Stephanie seems to be a bundle of contradictions. She clearly like Stephane and there are lots of moments of them enjoying each other's company and having fun.
But then when he expresses more interest in her, she withdraws and discourages him. At points this seems to be because she thinks he's actually trying to use her to get to her friend, but then later on this seems to be a rather rubbish reason. Most especially because at one point the film moves forward a month and yet there relationship seems to be still stuck on the same basic issue.
Also, there's a lot of stuff that happens that feels unresolved or random. Stephane's relationship with his mother is never fully explained. His job is also bizarre. It's a rubbish job, and he basically stops doing it, but then later an idea he had somehow becomes a big success. But after that success, he's back to avoiding the same job he was in.
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
But the thing is, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be the idea - I mean, is this the film of someone who's having some sort of breakdown? People around him never really seem to comment on the bizarre elements, and yet they're often involved in them too.
As I say - I think I might have liked this film more, but I wasn't quite in the right mood for it.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
breaking into 2010
By breaking into 2010 I'm referring to the scanning of anime mags. Specifically, over the weekend I scanned the January 2010 edition of megami.
I only scanned two mags total and I'm sure if I hadn't been feeling crappy I would have done more. Also I was slightly hampered because I went through the scans I've made and tried to name them.
When I scan there are always some images I can't easily identify at the time, so I then have to search through sites like AP and ANN to work out what they are. I've obviously been concentrating on doing scans, rather than naming them, so there were quite a few without names.
It's one of those jobs that takes ages because it's glacial - you sometimes have to open pages and pages to find the image you're looking for. Or you make a guess that proves to be inaccurate, but does lead you down the right path in the end.
So yeah, it can take hours and all you end up with is a dozen or files that have been renamed :/.
Anyway, the point is I watched some anime while I scanned so here are some mini reviews. There are quite a few, because I didn't watch many episodes. I was also a bit dismissive if I'm honest, probably because I wasn't feeling 100%.
Sora No Otoshimono
Essentially this is an "instant girlfriend" show, where the protagonist suddenly acquires a girlfriend, who usually also happens to be a magical girl or an alien or root or something like that. However, I'd say it was a good example of the genre.
Certainly, the first episode hinted at a lot of promise. In it, the protagonist goes power crazy, using and abusing the girl's power with suitably dramatic consequences. The second episode was less good as it kinda stretched itself a little thin, though if tightened up it would have worked a lit better.
So yeah, an overly familiar genre, but potentially quite a good example.
Sora no Manimani
I have to confess I found this to be okay, although I'm pretty sure it's a fairly standard romantic comedy anime. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it is a rather well-worn path. There's also a tendency in these sorts of shows to utilise a gimmick, rather than do anything particularly original, and in this case the gimmick seem to be astronomy.
Now to be fair that does score more points with me than most gimmicks, because it's an area of interest for me. So overall a watchable sort of show, but nothing new.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Although this is an adaptation of a manga, that manga was a spin-off from Toaru Majutsu no Index. I quite liked Index, so I was expecting to like this too, but I dunno, it didn't really do anything for me.
I think the problem was that were Index pretty much got into a plot straight away, whereas this felt more like a sort of slice of life job. A slice of an unusual life, maybe, but because I Was expecting plot, it was just kinda dull. Maybe it works better if you've seen all of Index (I've only sampled it) or it develops a proper plot later, or something,
Kaidan Restaurant
Although the 'kaidan' bit generally seems to be translated as "thriller", a better translation would be "ghost story" or "scary story".
Basically, this is a horror Portmanteaux series aimed at kids. In other words, it features the same characters, but each episode has 3 ghost stories (2 featuring the characters and 1 shorter one told by them as a ghost story).
I wouldn't say I found what I watched particularly scary as such, but other culture's ghost stories can often be quite interesting. And everyone loves a ghost story, although to be fair, this is aimed at kids.
Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo
Magical girls. Animals. I barely got ten minutes into this - any show that features an animal psychologist (who, incidentally, proceeds to put a cat next to a feeding bowl were several guinea pigs are feeding) isn't going to get very far with me.
Kobato
A CLAMP show. I've said before that CLAMP do little to nothing for me, and this didn't really do anything to reverse that opinion.
Weiß Survive
One of those two and a half minute webisode type shows. If I tell you Weiss is basically a company that makes card games, you can probably fill in the rest yourself.
I've also continued watching Ouran High School Host Club. I'm really enjoying it. This was actually a bit of a surprise, because I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea.
And I've been reading Gantz at a breakneck speed. To be fair, this is partly because it has one of those structures where it kinda eats pages. It's a bit like Claymore - you happily read a volume and enjoy it, but then realise that actually, it's not progressed very far. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I like both - but it does mean it works better reading it in big chunks of multiple volumes, rather than individual chapters or volumes.
I only scanned two mags total and I'm sure if I hadn't been feeling crappy I would have done more. Also I was slightly hampered because I went through the scans I've made and tried to name them.
When I scan there are always some images I can't easily identify at the time, so I then have to search through sites like AP and ANN to work out what they are. I've obviously been concentrating on doing scans, rather than naming them, so there were quite a few without names.
It's one of those jobs that takes ages because it's glacial - you sometimes have to open pages and pages to find the image you're looking for. Or you make a guess that proves to be inaccurate, but does lead you down the right path in the end.
So yeah, it can take hours and all you end up with is a dozen or files that have been renamed :/.
Anyway, the point is I watched some anime while I scanned so here are some mini reviews. There are quite a few, because I didn't watch many episodes. I was also a bit dismissive if I'm honest, probably because I wasn't feeling 100%.
Sora No Otoshimono
Essentially this is an "instant girlfriend" show, where the protagonist suddenly acquires a girlfriend, who usually also happens to be a magical girl or an alien or root or something like that. However, I'd say it was a good example of the genre.
Certainly, the first episode hinted at a lot of promise. In it, the protagonist goes power crazy, using and abusing the girl's power with suitably dramatic consequences. The second episode was less good as it kinda stretched itself a little thin, though if tightened up it would have worked a lit better.
So yeah, an overly familiar genre, but potentially quite a good example.
Sora no Manimani
I have to confess I found this to be okay, although I'm pretty sure it's a fairly standard romantic comedy anime. There's nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but it is a rather well-worn path. There's also a tendency in these sorts of shows to utilise a gimmick, rather than do anything particularly original, and in this case the gimmick seem to be astronomy.
Now to be fair that does score more points with me than most gimmicks, because it's an area of interest for me. So overall a watchable sort of show, but nothing new.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
Although this is an adaptation of a manga, that manga was a spin-off from Toaru Majutsu no Index. I quite liked Index, so I was expecting to like this too, but I dunno, it didn't really do anything for me.
I think the problem was that were Index pretty much got into a plot straight away, whereas this felt more like a sort of slice of life job. A slice of an unusual life, maybe, but because I Was expecting plot, it was just kinda dull. Maybe it works better if you've seen all of Index (I've only sampled it) or it develops a proper plot later, or something,
Kaidan Restaurant
Although the 'kaidan' bit generally seems to be translated as "thriller", a better translation would be "ghost story" or "scary story".
Basically, this is a horror Portmanteaux series aimed at kids. In other words, it features the same characters, but each episode has 3 ghost stories (2 featuring the characters and 1 shorter one told by them as a ghost story).
I wouldn't say I found what I watched particularly scary as such, but other culture's ghost stories can often be quite interesting. And everyone loves a ghost story, although to be fair, this is aimed at kids.
Anyamal Tantei Kiruminzoo
Magical girls. Animals. I barely got ten minutes into this - any show that features an animal psychologist (who, incidentally, proceeds to put a cat next to a feeding bowl were several guinea pigs are feeding) isn't going to get very far with me.
Kobato
A CLAMP show. I've said before that CLAMP do little to nothing for me, and this didn't really do anything to reverse that opinion.
Weiß Survive
One of those two and a half minute webisode type shows. If I tell you Weiss is basically a company that makes card games, you can probably fill in the rest yourself.
I've also continued watching Ouran High School Host Club. I'm really enjoying it. This was actually a bit of a surprise, because I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea.
And I've been reading Gantz at a breakneck speed. To be fair, this is partly because it has one of those structures where it kinda eats pages. It's a bit like Claymore - you happily read a volume and enjoy it, but then realise that actually, it's not progressed very far. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - I like both - but it does mean it works better reading it in big chunks of multiple volumes, rather than individual chapters or volumes.
Monday, 22 March 2010
man flu
A bit crappy weekend was a bit crappy.
On Saturday I woke up with a lot of discomfort in the roof of my mouth. I sometimes get the effect if I've been snoring particularly badly during the night, but this was slightly different. This was the prelude to disease.
Basically, I've got a bit of a cold. It kinda developed more during Sunday, with me getting a runny nose and sneezing and generally feeling tired and under the weather.
I was therefore fully expecting to get up this morning and be fully in the throws of a proper bout of manflu, except I'm not. There's actually been very little change from yesterday - my nose is a bit runny and the roof of my mouth hurts and while I feel a bit rubbish, it's not too bad.
I get these occasionally, where the cold never really gets going. I don't know why - it's like the cold is a wimpy strain or my body manages to fight it off before it really gets a foothold. Of course it could still get worse, but at the moment it's just a bit annoying.
It also made the weekend a vaguely unpleasant experience, but not enough so that I stayed in bed or anything.
On Saturday morning I went for a bit of a drive. My main intention was to see how the car was after its second new wheel and the results are good. I was a little afraid that the second bent wheel wouldn't be the only reason for the wobble, but signs were good.
It's great to be able to drive it down the A31 and not feel like it's shaking itself to pieces.
Sunday I went to the Opticians for my "these glasses are wrong" appointment and basically they've taken them and are going to replace the right lens.
The bit that I found bizarre was that from what the optician said, the lens they were going to put in the right eye was now basically identical to my old lens. I found this bizarre because at my first test the optician said that the test indicated that my eyes hadn't really changed and so they would put in the same lenses I had before.
So basically, I don't really understand what happened. It sound like, even though she said that, actually, they put in different lenses. So in other words, there would have been no problems if they'd just done what they said they would do :/.
I mean, I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick somewhere, but that's what it sounded like.
On Saturday I woke up with a lot of discomfort in the roof of my mouth. I sometimes get the effect if I've been snoring particularly badly during the night, but this was slightly different. This was the prelude to disease.
Basically, I've got a bit of a cold. It kinda developed more during Sunday, with me getting a runny nose and sneezing and generally feeling tired and under the weather.
I was therefore fully expecting to get up this morning and be fully in the throws of a proper bout of manflu, except I'm not. There's actually been very little change from yesterday - my nose is a bit runny and the roof of my mouth hurts and while I feel a bit rubbish, it's not too bad.
I get these occasionally, where the cold never really gets going. I don't know why - it's like the cold is a wimpy strain or my body manages to fight it off before it really gets a foothold. Of course it could still get worse, but at the moment it's just a bit annoying.
It also made the weekend a vaguely unpleasant experience, but not enough so that I stayed in bed or anything.
On Saturday morning I went for a bit of a drive. My main intention was to see how the car was after its second new wheel and the results are good. I was a little afraid that the second bent wheel wouldn't be the only reason for the wobble, but signs were good.
It's great to be able to drive it down the A31 and not feel like it's shaking itself to pieces.
Sunday I went to the Opticians for my "these glasses are wrong" appointment and basically they've taken them and are going to replace the right lens.
The bit that I found bizarre was that from what the optician said, the lens they were going to put in the right eye was now basically identical to my old lens. I found this bizarre because at my first test the optician said that the test indicated that my eyes hadn't really changed and so they would put in the same lenses I had before.
So basically, I don't really understand what happened. It sound like, even though she said that, actually, they put in different lenses. So in other words, there would have been no problems if they'd just done what they said they would do :/.
I mean, I may have gotten the wrong end of the stick somewhere, but that's what it sounded like.
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